The present application relates to an anthanthrene based compound and a semiconductor device including a semiconductor layer composed of such an anthanthrene based compound.
In recent years, semiconductor devices including a semiconductor layer composed of an organic semiconductor material have been receiving considerable attention. In such a semiconductor device, a semiconductor layer can be coated and deposited at a low temperature as compared with a configuration including a semiconductor layer composed of an inorganic material. For that reason, such a semiconductor device is advantageous for realizing a large area and can be formed on a flexible substrate which is, however, low in heat resistance, such as plastics. Reduction in cost as well as multi-functionalization is also expected.
At present, as organic semiconductor materials constituting a semiconductor layer, for example, polyacene compounds such as anthracene, naphthacene and pentacene having the following structural formulae are being widely researched.

In these polyacene compounds, it is expected that as the ring length elongates, a π-system becomes wide, and larger overlapping of orbits is formed between adjacent molecules, whereby carrier mobility is enhanced. However, in general, it may be said that pentacene is an acene compound having a maximum ring length at which it is able to stably exist and that polyacene compounds having a loner ring length than hexacene are instable. For that reason, it is difficult to isolate such a polyacene compound (see Journal of Organic Chemistry, 1999, Vol. 64, pp. 2505 to 2512; and Journal of The American Chemical Society, 2006, Vol. 128, pp. 2873 to 2879). Also, as means for constructing a wide π-system, there are reported oligo polyacene compounds resulting from bonding plural polyacene compounds (see JP-A-2004-107257; Angewante Chemie, International Edition, 2003, Vol. 42, pp. 1159 to 1162; and Journal of Applied Physics, 2004, Vol. 95, pp. 5795 to 5799).